Download “Indeed, it takes only a single system of grammar to provide

“Indeed, it takes only a single system of grammar to provide
continuous torture for life.”
In Praise of Folly, 1509
Erasmus
Chapter 2
All about Chol
This chapter will offer a description of the language Chol and the people who speak
it. In §2.1 I will present demographic and ethnographic information about the
Choles with whom I lived and worked during the summers of 2002 and 2003. §2.2
will describe Chol’s phonemic inventory, the orthographic conventions adopted for
this thesis, as well as some of Chol’s regular phonological processes. In §2.3 I will
discuss prominent Chol morphological characteristics, such as head-marking and
ergativity. Next, in §2.4 I will describe the structure of nouns and verbs, including
agreement affixes, aspect, voice, and mode. §2.5 will illustrate the various processes
for modifying verb and noun stems in Chol. Finally, in §2.6 I will examine Chol
constituent order within the context of constituent order typology more generally,
and then illustrate some of the syntactic representations that have been proposed
to account for Chol’s cousin, Tzotzil.
2.1
2.1.1
The language and its speakers
Genetic affiliation
The Mayan language family consists of about thirty languages, spoken by approximately 3,500,000 people in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (Lois and Vapnarsky
2003, 3). These languages, descended from Proto-Mayan, are divided into five ma-
10
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
jor sub-groups (Campbell and Kaufman 1985, 188), shown in Figure 2.1.1 Chol
belongs to the Cholan sub-family, along with Chontal, Chortı́, and the now-extinct
Choltı́.
2.1.2
Lak ty’añ
The language Chol is spoken today by between 100,000 and 200,000 people in the
state of Chiapas in southern Mexico (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, xvii), highlighted in
Figure 2.2.2 The majority of Chol speaking communities are found in the municipios
of Tila, Palenque, Sabanilla, Salto de Agua, and Tumbalá shown in Figure 2.3. The
data for this thesis was collected in a small village called Campanario within the
municipio of Tila.
Chol speakers call their language lak ty’añ, literally ‘our word’ or ‘our speech’.
The label ch’ol or chol 3 is used to refer both to the language and to the people who
speak it. The origins of this term are not entirely clear. It is thought, however, that
the label was externally imposed and is related to the root chol for ‘cornfield’ or
‘milpa’. Attinasi (1973, 1) notes that:
Slashing (/cho-bal/) with a machete to clear jungle-forest for cornplanting, and /ixim/, maize corn itself, are both quasi-sacred to the Chol
people; it is not unlikely that at the time of first contact they would
have identified themselves to others as people of the milpa. Even today, the most frequent euphemism for the often pejorative “Indian” is
campesino “peasant, fieldworker.”
1
Adapted from Craig (1979).
Maps from Vásquez Alvarez (2002).
3
Throughout this thesis ‘Chol’ will be written without the apostrophe (see §2.2.2 on orthogra2
phy) to reflect English pronunciation. Attinasi (1973, 3) writes that,
In the regions of the Eastern Dialects (Tumbalá, Salto de Agua, Palenque), the
language and people are called ‘Ch’ol’ with glottalization. In the western region
(Tila, Sabanilla), the name is simply ‘Chol’. Since the name ‘Chol’ is not really a
Chol word, the indeterminacy of the name presents no linguistic problem.
2.1. THE LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS
Figure 2.1: The Mayan language family
11
12
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
Figure 2.2: Mexico with the state of Chiapas highlighted
Figure 2.3: Municipios in Chiapas with large Chol speaking populations
2.1. THE LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS
13
When speaking Spanish, Choles often refer to their native language simply as
idyoma, from the Spanish word for language. Ladinos,4 on the other hand, frequently
call Chol and other indigenous languages dialectos (dialects). Labeling Chol a dialect
wrongly implies that it is simply a degenerate version of Spanish and not a fullfledged language. This term reflects the belief held by many Ladinos (and not a
small number of Choles) that indigenous languages are inferior to Spanish or are
somehow not “real” languages. The Chol word for a Ladino is kaxlañ (from Spanish
Castellano, Castilian); Choles call themselves lakpi’ilob, literally ‘our friends’ or ‘our
compadres’.
2.1.3
Choles
Most rural Choles are subsistence farmers whose staple crops include corn and beans.
Many also cultivate squash, greens, bananas, and various other fruits. Chickens and
turkeys are raised and either sold or eaten during festivals. Some families raise cattle,
pigs, and other livestock, mostly destined for sale in the market. Income from the
sale of goods is used to cover transportation costs, and to purchase clothes and school
supplies, soap and toiletry items, dishes and other kitchen utensils, veterinary and
agricultural supplies, medicine and doctor’s visits, as well as prepared foods and
non-local fruits and vegetables.
In rural Chol country, children learn Chol as their first language and continue
to speak it in the home and within the community. However, the growing need to
travel outside of the village for work and higher education, the increasing number of
Spanish-broadcasting televisions and radios, as well as the stigma often associated
with speaking an indigenous langauge, have all made learning Spanish desirable,
if not a necessity, for many Choles. In Campanario, many men and a number of
younger women speak competent, if not fluent Spanish.
4
The Spanish word Ladino refers to Mexicans who do not identify as indigenous. This la-
bel generally has less to do with ethnic make-up than with socio-economic status, lifestyle, and
language.
14
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
For most children, Spanish education begins in the school. Rural villages usually
have at least a primary school, and some have a secondary school as well (often this
is a telesecundaria where lessons are given through a television placed at the front of
the classroom). For further (or better) education it is generally necessary to travel
to another town, though associated costs are usually prohibitive. Primary school
instruction begins in Chol and shifts to Spanish by around the fourth grade. In my
experience, many of the older children in Campanario clearly understood Spanish
but were reluctant to speak it, perhaps due to shyness or lack of practice. Although
in Mexico it is theoretically mandatory to attend through secondary school, many
students, especially girls (who often marry young), do not continue past the sixth
grade. The cost of books, school supplies, and often the necessity of transportation
makes further education unfeasible for many.
2.1.4
Dialects of Chol
Three different dialects of Chol are generally recognized: Sabanilla Chol, Tumbalá
Chol, and Tila Chol. Tila Chol may be further divided into northern and southern
dialect regions. In spite of these differences, there is a high level of mutual intelligibility between speakers of different dialects (Aulie and Aulie 1978, xvii). Many
differences explicitly recognized and discussed by Chol speakers are lexical. For example, when asked what distinctions exist between Tila Chol and Tumbalá Chol,
Tila speakers will invariably cite the fact that in Tumbalá they call rocks xajlel
instead of tyuñ and depart with the farewell samoñix instead of koñix. Although
syntactic and phonological differences doubtless exist as well, a complete analysis
of dialectal variation in Chol is beyond the scope of this thesis, which will focus on
the Tila dialect.
2.1.5
Previous work
Chol has received relatively little scholarly linguistic attention compared to many
of the other Mayan languages. Most of the published linguistic materials (those by
2.2. PHONOLOGY
15
Viola Warkentin, Ruby Scott, Arabelle Whittaker, and Wilbur and Evelyn Aulie,
among others) are the products of years, often decades, of missionary work conducted in various Chol-speaking communities. As a result of their efforts, a number
of publications related to Chol (linguistic and non-linguistic) are available, and may
be found on the SIL webpage (www.sil.org). Although many of the missionaries
have been trained in linguistics, their primary goal is to translate the New Testament into Chol and to teach Chol speakers to read it. They have thus produced
much in the way of descriptive work, though they have dealt very rarely with its
theoretical implications.
Linguistic materials include two works on Chol phonology: Warkentin and Brend
(1974) and Koob Schick (1979); various grammatical studies: Schumann (1973),
Attinasi (1973), Attinasi (1976), Hoopert and Warkentin (1977), Warkentin and
Scott (1980), Meneses Méndez (1987), and Montejo López (1999); as well as four
dictionaries: Torres Rosales (1974), Aulie and Aulie (1978), INEA (1992), and Montejo López (2001). Most recently, Vásquez Alvarez (2002), a native Chol speaker,
has published a thesis on Tila Chol verbal morphology to which this thesis will refer
frequently. Additionally, a number of bilingual Chol–Spanish texts are published
by the Chiapas State Government ranging from folk tales to creation stories and
poetry. Whittaker and Warkentin (1965) have published a Chol–English book of
collected stories called Chol Texts on the Supernatural.
2.2
Phonology
This section will offer a brief sketch of the sounds found in Chol, as well as some of
the regular phonological processes which they undergo. A more detailed discussion
of syllable structure and roots will follow in Chapter 3.
2.2.1
Phoneme inventory
Chol has a phonemic inventory of twenty consonants, including five ejectives and
one glottal stop, shown in Table 2.1. As Vásquez Alvarez (2002) notes, other studies
16
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
of Chol have produced different lists of phonemic consonants. This discrepancy has
been the result of the mis-analysis of certain allophones as separate phonemes (for
example, /ñ/ and its allophone [n]), as well as the inclusion of sounds found in words
borrowed from Spanish (e.g. /g/ or /f/), which Vásquez Alvarez (2002, 2) rightly
argues do not play a significant role in Chol’s phonological system.
Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar
Plosive
p
Ejective
p’
Implosive
b
Nasal
m
ts’
(t)
ty
k
ch’
ty’
k’
Glottal
’
ñ
Fricative
s
x
Affricate
ts
ch
Approximant
Palatal Velar
j
w
y
Lateral approximant
l
Table 2.1: Chol consonants
Chol has six phonemic vowel sounds, represented in Table 2.2 below. Though
none have disputed this basic six-vowel inventory, Warkentin and Brend (1974) note
an interesting relationship between the vowels /a/ and /ä/, discussed in §2.2.4.
Front Center Back
High i
Mid
ä
e
Low
u
o
a
Table 2.2: Chol vowels
2.2.2
A note on orthography
The orthography adopted for this thesis is a standard Chol orthography, based
mainly on Spanish writing conventions. This is the alphabet taught in schools and
2.2. PHONOLOGY
17
found in many grammars and recent Chol literature.5 Although the abundance of
di– and tri– graphs is a drawback (often obscuring the CVC nature of roots), I have
adopted it so that my informants could become more involved in the transcription
process.
2.2.3
Consonants
Chol’s five ejective consonants are contrastive with their non-ejective counterparts
in all positions. Compare for example, Chol ty’añ ‘word’ and tyañ ‘lime’, or buts’
‘smoke’ and buts ‘sprout’.
In Chol and other Mayan languages there are no truly vowel-initial roots; all
have a glottal onset (cf. Haviland 1981, England 1983, Vásquez Alvarez 2002).
This initial glottal stop is lost, however, with the addition of certain prefixes. For
example, ’otyoty ‘house’ becomes k-otyoty ‘my house’ when possessed. This loss is
perhaps not surprising given that it has been argued that the Mayan glottal stop
is not always a full-fledged consonant. For example, Lois and Vapnarsky (2003,
fn. 3) write that words like ja’as ‘banana’ and cha’añ ‘for’ should be analyzed as
conforming to the canonical CVC root form, claiming that the vowel is a “glottalized
vowel” since it behaves formally as a single syllable nucleus. England (1983, 35) also
argues that in Mam, “Glottal stop has structural characteristics of both consonants
and vowels.”
Chol’s only voiced consonant, /b/, has been analyzed as [’] or [p] word-finally, and
described as “weakly pre-glottalized elsewhere” (Attinasi 1976, 215) or “preceded
by a glottal stop” when following a vowel (Warkentin and Brend 1974, 89). These
descriptions hint at the implosive nature of /b/, which has also been noted for other
Mayan languages.6 In Mam, for example, “The imploded bilabial /b’/ is always
voiced in initial or medial position but is devoiced finally” (England 1983, 26).
5
Alternate symbols found in the literature include use of a wedge or /ü/ for the high central
vowel /ä/; /t/ for /ty/ and /n/ for /ñ/; /c/ or /qu/ for /k/; and /h/ for /j/. /š/ and /č/ have
also been used to represent /x/ and /ch/. Many linguists who work on Mayan languages use the
symbol ‘7’ to represent a glottal stop.
6
Thanks to Matt Pearson for this observation.
18
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
A non-palatalized /t/, sometimes considered a separate phoneme (cf. Warkentin
and Scott 1980), contrasts with /ty/ in only one case that I am aware of: the
minimal pair of ta’, a perfective marker and tya’, ‘shit’. In some dialects of Chol,
however, the perfective ta’ is pronounced as tsa’ so it is possible that [t] is simply
an allophone of /ts/. Alternatively, Chol’s /ty/ corresponds to /t/ in many Tzotzil
and Tzeltal cognate words; compare Tzeltal mut and Chol muty ‘chicken’ or Tzeltal
tat and Chol tyaty ‘father’. Perhaps a change from a proto-form */t/ to /ty/ in
Chol was blocked in the case of the perfective ta’ to avoid undesirable homophony
with tya’ ‘shit’.7 In any case, because /t/ does not play a central role in Chol’s
phonological system, I have listed it only in parentheses.
In addition to the twenty above consonants, the sounds /f/, /g/, /d/, /r/ and
non-palatalized /n/ and /t/ occur frequently in Spanish loan words such as falda
‘skirt’, kwando ‘when’, and rosa ‘pink’.
2.2.4
Vowels
Two prominent phonological properties distinguish Chol from its close relatives: the
sixth vowel /ä/, and the so-called infix -j-. These properties, I argue, are both properties of vowels, historically related to similar phenomena found in nearby members
of the Yucatecan family in which “. . . all roots share a general template CVC that
is associated with a matrix in which both Cs are completely determined but V only
partially so”(Lois and Vapnarsky 2003, 18). In the Yucatecan languages (Yucatec,
Itza’, Mopan, and Lacandon), qualities of the vowel, such as length and height,
become determined in the process of stem formation. As I will discuss here, Chol
also appears to employ some of these characteristics.
a vs. ä
Whereas other members of the Tzeltalan sub-family (Chontal: Turner 1967; Tzotzil:
Haviland 1981; Tzeltal: Shklovsky, p.c.) have only the five vowels /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/,
and /u/, Chol possesses a sixth: /ä/. This sixth vowel, however, is limited in its
7
I am grateful to Matt Pearson for both of these suggestions.
2.2. PHONOLOGY
19
distribution: Warkentin and Brend (1974, 92) note that whereas the other five vowels
may occur initially (after a glottal onset), medially, or finally, /ä/ “occurs initially
only in onomatopoeic words.” Furthermore, although many roots do contain the
vowel /ä/ (for example tyäk’ ‘add’), it is difficult to find a semantically unrelated
minimal pair in which the vowel differs only in height. There is no word *tyak’,
for example, but note the semantically related tyak’iñ ‘money’, from the same root.
Also compare pak’ ‘seed’ with päk’ ‘plant’.
In the Yucatecan languages of Itza’, Mopan, and Lacandon, the high central
vowel /ä/ appears in transitive stems, while the low central vowel /a/ is used to
form intransitive stems. Although “[t]he height distinction does not affect the other
vowels,” Lois and Vapnarsky (2003, 18) argue that “the alternation between /ä/
and /a/ should arguably be sufficient to set a pattern in this direction.” In Chol,
an analogous pattern is observed. For example:8
pak’
‘seed’
päk’
‘to plant’
ñak
‘game’
ñäk
‘to bother’
x-pay
‘messenger’
päy
‘to call’
These pairs, along with /ä/’s limited distribution, suggest that aside from such
transitivity distinctions, /ä/ historically did not play a significant role in Chol’s
phonological system.
-jChol is the only member of the Tzeltalan branch which has been claimed to have
an infix (Haviland, p.c.). Most previous authors have analyzed -j- (which always
appears between the root vowel and the final consonant: CVjC) as a detransitivizing
infix (cf. Warkentin and Scott 1980, Aulie and Aulie 1978, Vásquez Alvarez 2002).
It appears in intransitive verb constructions, as shown in (2.1b)9 and is also used in
the formation of numeral classifiers (see §2.5.1).
8
9
Examples from Aulie and Aulie (1978), my translation.
For a list of abbreviations and special symbols, please see Appendix A.
20
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.1)
a. tyi’
mek’-e-y-oñ
PERF.3E hug-VT-EPN-1A
‘She hugged me.’
b. tyi
mejk’-i-y-oñ
PERF hug.PASS-VI-EPN-1A
‘I was hugged.’
Following Attinasi (1976), I argue that this so-called infix should instead be considered a process of vowel lengthening.10 Analyzed as such, Chol may be compared
to Yucatec, in which a long vowel distinguishes intransitive from transitive stems
(Lois and Vapnarsky 2003, 19). This and other valence-changing operations will be
discussed in greater detail in §2.4.2. Although Attinasi (1973) represents lengthened
vowels as V:, I will keep the traditional orthography: Vj.
2.2.5
Phonological operations
This section will examine the most widespread sound change operations found in
Chol. Chol’s aversion to adjacent vowels, even across word boundaries, necessitates
a number of phonological operations. In this section, insertion, replacement, and
deletion will be discussed as strategies for breaking up vowel clusters. Finally, I will
describe distant assimilation and vowel harmony, also found frequently in Chol word
formation.
Epenthesis
Epenthesis is the process by which one sound is inserted to break up two other
sounds. In Chol, -y- is placed between a root or stem-final vowel and a suffix with
an initial vowel, as in example (2.2). In example (2.3) we find further evidence
for the semi-vocalic nature of the glottal stop, as an epenthetic -y- is inserted to
separate it from the following vowel.
(2.2) ta’-ix
jul-i-y-oñ
PERF-ALR arrive-VI-EPN-1A
‘I arrived already.’
10
Recall that our symbol /j/ has the IPA value /h/.
2.2. PHONOLOGY
21
(2.3) tyi
bo’-y-i-y-ety
PERF tire-EPN-VI-EPN-2A
‘You (became) tired.’
Additionally, -j - appears between vowel-final roots and vowel-initial suffixes.
However, since roots native to Chol are usually of the form CVC (see Chapter 3)
this only occurs in Spanish loans, as in examples (2.4)11 and (2.5).
(2.4) ma’añ
mi-k
mulañ-Ø jiñi kixtyañoj-ob
NEG.EXT IMPF-1E like-3A DET SP.person-PL
‘I don’t like those people.’
(2.5) solteroj-oñ-tyo
SP.bachelor-1A-STILL
‘I am still a bachelor.’
On this matter I follow Attinasi (1976, 76), who proposes that the Spanish
loanwords have been borrowed with a final /j/ to conform to the Mayan syllable
pattern, and that this /j/ is only clearly heard upon the addition of a vowel-initial
suffix. This would explain the unusual discrepancy between “epenthesis” following
vowel-final stems (which involves /y/) and following these vowel-final roots (which
are under this analysis not really vowel-final at all).
Glottal stop replacement
When the final vowel of a function word (e.g. aspectual auxiliary, preposition)
appears adjacent to the initial vowel of the following stem, one of the vowels is
dropped and replaced by a glottal stop (V V → V 0 ). In example (2.6),12 the third
person ergative prefix i- has been deleted from the verb stem majlel as well as the
noun stem cholel, and glottal stops have been affixed to the aspectual mi and the
preposition tyi respectively.
11
12
kixtyaño ‘person’ is from the Spanish cristiano ‘Christian’.
Gender is not distinguished in Chol pronouns or person agreement markers. Though ambigu-
ous outside of context, third person arguments will be arbitrarily translated as either feminine,
masculine, or neuter.
22
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.6) mi’
majl-el
tyi’
cholel a-papa
IMPF.3E go-NOM PREP.3E field 2E-father
‘She’s going to your father’s field.’
Deletion
Where two vowels are separated by only a glottal stop, deletion of the glottal stop
and one of the vowels often occurs (V ’V or V’ V → V). This is not surprising,
given the observation in §2.2.3 above that the glottal stop exhibits characteristics of
vowels, and that vowel clusters in Chol are disfavored. All of the cases listed below
are extremely common, but generally not heard in careful speech.
(2.7) baki ’añ → bakañ (‘where’ + EXT)
ta’-äch → täch (PERF + AFF)
ta’-ix → tax (PERF + ALR)
Assimilation
In non-careful speech, vowels in certain suffixes (and enclitics) may undergo partial
or total distant assimilation, in which the attached vowel adopts some or all of the
features of the vowel in the preceding root. Partial assimilation of the enclitic -ix is
shown in example (2.8b), where the high front unrounded vowel /i/ assimilates in
backness and roundness to the root vowel /o/. In (2.8c) the enclitic vowel undergoes
full assimilation.
(2.8)
a. mach k-om-ix
NEG 1E-want-ALR
‘I don’t want it anymore.’
b. mach k-om-ux
NEG 1E-want-ALR
‘I don’t want it anymore.’
c. mach k-om-ox
NEG 1E-want-ALR
‘I don’t want it anymore.’
2.2. PHONOLOGY
23
Vowel harmony
Many Chol suffixes contain harmonic vowels—vowels which acquire part or all of
their value from the vowel in the preceding root. To form a transitive stem, for
example, a harmonic vowel (represented henceforth as a lowercase italicized v ) is
employed. Three alternations of the transitive perfective suffix -v are shown in
example (2.9) below.
(2.9)
a. tyi’
mek’-e-y-oñ
PERF.3E hug-VT-EPN-1A
‘She hugged me.’
b. ma’añ
tyi’
k’ux-u-Ø i-waj
NEG.EXT PERF.3E eat-VT-3A 3E-tortilla
‘He didn’t eat his tortilla.’
c. tyi
k-mäñ-ä-Ø
cha’-p’ej
kilo
koya’
PERF 1E-buy-VT-3A two-NC.round SP.kilo tomato
‘I bought two kilos of tomatoes.’
In the above cases, the transitive suffix acquires all of its features from the vowel
in the preceding root. A case of partial harmony, however, occurs when the root
vowel is /a/ and the root-final consonant is non-fricative. In these instances the
vowel height changes, while the other features are retained (the vowel is raised).
Compare the fully harmonic vowel in (2.10a) with the raised vowel in (2.10b).
(2.10)
a. tyi’
tyaj-a-Ø
k’amañ
PERF.3E find-VT-3A sickness
‘He became sick.’
b. tyi’
jap-ä-Ø
kuley
PERF.3E drink-VT-3A SP.koolaid
‘She drank koolaid.’
2.2.6
Stress
In standard declarative sentences, stress falls on the final syllable of each word. The
most common way to form a yes/no question in Chol is by moving the stress to the
24
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
first syllable of the word and using a falling intonation through the phrase, as shown
in (2.11).13
(2.11)
a. maystraj-oñ-ı́x
SP.teacher-1A-ALR
‘I’m already a teacher.’
b. máystraj-ety-ix?
SP.teacher-2A-ALR
‘You’re already a teacher?’
Figure 2.4: Virginia’s nephew, Wiliam
13
For more detail on stress, as well as definitions of word-hood in Chol, see Warkentin and Brend
(1974, 93).
2.3. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
2.3
25
Morphological characteristics
Typology is the classification of languages based on their morpho-syntactic properties. Typologies are considered worthwhile insofar as they may be employed to
make useful predictions about other components of the language (e.g. constituent
order). Two basic types of typologies have been especially important to the study
of language: morphological typology and word order typology (Comrie 1989, 42).
Morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. In this section I will
discuss morphological typology of the Mayan language family and examine morphological properties and processes of Chol. Constituent order typology and syntactic
structure will be discussed in §2.6.
2.3.1
Indices of synthesis and fusion
Comrie (1989, 46) proposes two indices along which languages may be classified
based on their morphological properties. The first is the index of synthesis, which
measures the average number of morphemes per word. The second, the index of fusion, measures the degree to which these morphemes may be separated into distinct
units. Each will discussed in turn below.
Index of synthesis
(Isolating ←→ Synthetic)
Languages in which words generally consist of many morphemes are placed on the
synthetic end of the continuum, whereas isolating languages, in which words are
usually monomorphemic, are placed at the other extreme. Chinese languages are
probably the best known examples of isolating languages. Chol, on the other hand,
is highly synthetic. In (2.12), for example, an entire proposition is expressed by a
single word. In example (2.13) most words consist of more than one morpheme.
(2.12) alob-oñ-tyo
boy-1A-STILL
‘I am still a boy.’
26
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.13) weñ-äch
ta’
k-wiñ
ch’ujbi-be-Ø
i-ty’añ
jiñi k-papa
good-AFF PERF 1E-well obey-APP-3A 3E-word DET 1E-papa
‘I obeyed my father(’s words) well.’
Index of fusion
(Agglutinative ←→ F usional)
The second index proposed by Comrie is the index of fusion. This index measures
the degree to which meaningful units are segmentable into distinct forms. Languages
in which there is frequently not a one-to-one ratio between forms and meanings, or
in which it is difficult to make clear divisions between morphemes, are placed on the
fusional end of the scale. Arabic is an example of a fusional language. On the other
side are agglutinative languages, such as Turkish, in which words are easily separable
into their component single-meaning morphemes. Chol probably lives closer to the
agglutinative side of the continuum. In examples (2.12) and (2.13) above, nearly
every morpheme expresses one unit of meaning and is clearly discernable from the
next. Exceptions such as ma’añ (from mach and ’añ) and täch (from ta’ and -äch),
however, are not uncommon.
2.3.2
Head-marking
Chol and other languages of the Mayan family are head-marking (see Nichols 1986):
grammatical relations are marked on the head of the phrase, rather than on its dependents. Verbs and nouns in Chol employ the same two sets of agreement affixes to
mark relations between heads and their dependents: ergative prefixes (traditionally
labeled “Set A” by Mayanists) and absolutive suffixes (“Set B”), shown in Table
2.3. The uses of these affixes for nouns and verbs will be discussed in turn below.
The meanings of the terms “ergative” and “absolutive” will be explained in §2.3.3.
The ergative prefixes are subject to the following sound change rules:
k- → j-/
k
a- → aw-/
i- → y-/
V
V
2.3. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
27
Ergative
Absolutive
“Set A”
“Set B”
1st person
k-
-oñ
2nd person
a-
-ety
3rd person
i-
-Ø
Table 2.3: Ergative and absolutive agreement affixes
Verbs
In a Chol clause no morphological case is marked on overt nominal arguments.
Instead, arguments are cross-referenced on the verb using agreement affixes. On a
transitive verb, for example, the subject is cross-referenced using an ergative prefix,
while the object is cross-referenced with an absolutive suffix. In example (2.14), none
of the three overt nominals take any case morphology.14 Instead, the grammatical
relations of the verb’s two arguments, pisil and joñoñ, are cross-referenced on the
verb. The oblique ja’ receives its abstract case from Chol’s all-purpose preposition,
tyi.
(2.14) tyi
ii -wuts’-u-Øj
pisilj x-’ixiki
tyi
ja’
PERF 3E-wash-VT-3A clothes CL-woman PREP water
‘The woman washed clothes in the water.’
Because agreement is head-marked on the verb, overt subject and object pronouns are optional and used only for emphasis (analogous to stress in English).
Chol’s pronouns are shown in Table 2.4. As in other Mayan languages (Lois and
Vapnarsky 2003, 5), the independent pronouns are formally related to the absolutive
suffixes.
14
In this case, grammatical relations are determined by word order: VOS, discussed in §2.6.1.
28
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
1
(INC)
Singular
Plural
joñoñ
joñoñla
(EXC)
joñoñlojoñ / joñoñloñ
2
jatyety
jatyetyla
3
jiñ
jiñob
Table 2.4: Pronouns
Nouns
Chol also marks grammatical relations of nominals on the head noun using the same
two sets of agreement affixes listed above. Possession, for example, is head-marked
on the possessed noun with an ergative prefix. When overt, the possessor directly
follows the possessed noun and receives no marking, as shown in example (2.15).
ñeñe’j
(2.15) ’uts’aty-Øj ij -jol
pretty-3A 3E-hair baby
‘The baby’s hair is pretty.’
In a predicate nominal construction, the theme of the stative predicate is crossreferenced on the head noun with an absolutive suffix, as illustrated in example
(2.16). Note that Chol possesses no overt copula.
(2.16) wiñik-ety
man-2A
‘You are a man.’
Both types of agreement morphology may appear on the same noun, as shown
in example (2.17), where the ergative prefix i- marks possession and the absolutive
suffix -ety marks the theme of the predicate nominal.
(2.17) i-chich-ety
3E-elder.sister-2A
‘You are his big sister.’
2.3. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
29
Plural agreement
Both sets of agreement affixes use the same plural markers, shown in Table 2.5, on
verbs and predicative nominals. This is demonstrated in examples (2.18) and (2.19).
1st person (inclusive)
-la
1st person (exclusive)
-lojoñ / -loñ
2nd person
-la
3rd person
-ob
Table 2.5: Plural agreement affixes
(2.18) tyi
wäy-i-y-oñ-la
PERF sleep-VI-EPN-1A-PL
‘We slept.’
(2.19) x-’ixik-oñ-la
CL-woman-1A-PL
‘We are women.’
Within the first person plural, a distinction is made between plural inclusive
(speaker, addressee, and perhaps others) and plural exclusive (speaker and others
but not the addressee). Exclusive plural is marked with the suffix -lojoñ or its
contracted form -loñ. la is used to mark inclusive first person plural, as well as
second person plural. When la marks plural of an ergative person, it may appear
either as a prefix to the ergative marker or as a suffix, as shown in example (2.20).
(2.20)
a. tyi
la-k-mäñ-ä-Ø
koya’
PERF PL-1E-buy-VT-3A tomato
‘We bought tomatoes.’
b. tyi
k-mäñ-ä-Ø-la
koya’
PERF 1E-buy-VT-3A-PL tomato
‘We bought tomatoes.’
Third person plural is marked with the suffix -ob. Because -ob marks plural for
both ergative and absolutive persons, and because the same agreement marker may
30
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
not appear twice, the following sentence in (2.21) is ambiguous when read outside
of context. Here, the plural -ob could be co-indexed with the subject, the object, or
both.
(2.21) tyi’
jats’-ä-Ø-y-ob
PERF.3E hit-VT-3A-EPN-PL
‘He hit them.’
‘They hit him.’
‘They hit them.’
2.3.3
Ergativity
All languages distinguish between intransitive verbs, which involve a single argument
(S), and transitive verbs, which require two or more arguments (A = subject, O =
object) (Dixon 1979, 6). Dixon (1979, 6) argues that “all languages work in terms of
these three primitive relations.” Languages vary, however, in how they distinguish
between S, A, and O. Languages in which S and A are treated the same (but different
from O) are called nominative-accusative. English and most other Indo-European
languages use this type of agreement system to mark grammatical relations. In
example (2.22), the English subject of transitive and intransitive sentences are both
marked with the nominative pronoun she, while the object of the transitive sentence
is marked with the accusative her.
(2.22)
a. She hugged her.
b. She cried.
c. *Her cried.
In contrast, ergative-absolutive languages are those in which the object of a transitive verb (O) is marked the same as the single argument of an intransitive verb
(S), but differently from the subject of a transitive verb (A). Ergativity has been
estimated to occur in about one quarter of the world’s languages (Dixon 1979, 2).
Though not encountered in the more familiar European languages, ergative characteristics are found across the globe: Examples include Basque (isolate), many of
2.3. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
31
the Caucasian languages, Tongan and Samoan (Polynesian), the majority of PamaNyungan (Australian) languages, Päri (Western Nilotic) in Africa, languages of the
Eskimo-Aleut family in North America, as well as Tsimshian in British Columbia
and Chinook in Oregon, languages of the Carib and Arawak families in South America, and most languages of the Mayan family (Dixon 1979). In Chol, for example,
the equivalent of (2.22) are the sentences shown in (2.23), where the the subject of
the transitive mek’ is marked with the ergative third person i -. The object of mek’
and single argument of the intransitive ’uk’ are both marked with the absolutive
third person zero morpheme.
(2.23)
a. tyi
i-mek’-e-Ø
PERF 3E-hug-VT-3A
‘She hugged her.’
b. tyi
’uk’-i-Ø
PERF cry-VI-3A
‘She cried.’
c. *tyi
y-uk’-i
PERF 3E-cry-VI
‘She cried.’
The difference between ergative-absolutive and nominative-accusative agreement
systems is summarized in Table 2.6 below.
Nom-Acc
A
S
Erg-Abs
O A
O
S
Table 2.6: Agreement systems
Split ergativity
Although all members of the Mayan family employ a primarily ergative-absolutive
pattern to mark grammatical relations, many languages show an ergative split: certain constructions use a nominative-accusative pattern, while others are ergativeabsolutive. In Mayan, splits are based predominantly on subordination and aspect
32
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(Lois and Vapnarsky 2003, 6). For Chol, an aspectual split is present whereby
perfective constructions show an ergative-absolutive pattern and non-perfective constructions show a nominative-accusative pattern. Intransitive verbs in the perfective
are marked with absolutive suffixes, as shown in example (2.24b), and intransitive
verbs in the imperfective and progressive aspects are marked with ergative prefixes,
as in example (2.24c).
(2.24)
a. transitive
tyi
i-jats’-ä-y-oñ
IMPF 3E-hit-VT-EPN-1A
‘She hits me.’
b. intransitive perfective (= ergative-absolutive)
tyi
jul-i-y-oñ
PERF arrive-VI-EPN-1A
‘I arrived.’
c. intransitive imperfective (= nominative-accusative)
mi
k-jul-el
IMPF 1E-arrive-NOM
‘I arrive.’
However, when verbs appear in a subordinate clause as the complement of an
aspectual auxiliary, they are not marked for person. In these constructions, the
absolutive person marker is attached to the aspectual auxiliary. The verb appears
in its participle form subordinated by the preposition tyi, as shown in examples
(2.25) and (2.26). These constructions will be discussed in greater detail in §2.4.1.
A summary of the ergativity split in Chol is given in Table 2.7.
(2.25) muk’-oñ tyi
jul-el
IMPF-1A PREP arrive-NOM
‘I arrive.’
(2.26) choñkol-Ø tyi
’uk’-el
PROG-3A PREP cry-NOM
‘He’s crying.’
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
Ergative-absolutive
33
Nominative-accusative
perfective
subordinated non-perfective
non-perfective
Table 2.7: Summary of the ergativity split
2.4
The structure of nouns and verbs
In the following section I will briefly outline the structure of nouns and verbs in Chol,
highlighting prominent similarities and differences between the two. The functions
of the ergative and absolutive affixes, which appear on both types of stems, are
summarized in Table 2.8.
Ergative
Absolutive
subject of transitive verb
object of transitive verb
possessor/relator of noun theme of stative predicate
Table 2.8: Functions of ergative and absolutive affixes
While the majority of Chol noun stems may appear minimally in their bare,
uninflected forms,15 a basic verbal construction in Chol consists at least of a derived
verbal stem,16 inflected for person, and preceded by an aspectual auxiliary.17 Additional verbal morphology includes a variety of valence-changing or “voice” suffixes
(some of which may also appear on nouns). Second position modal enclitics may occur with both nominal and verbal stems. Aspect, voice, and mode will be discussed
in the sections that follow.
15
Exceptions are limited to a small class of inalienably possessed nouns.
Stem formation will be discussed in §4.2.
17
A few stative verb stems, including those formed from the roots ’om ‘want’, mejl ‘be able to’,
16
and ’uj ‘know’, and ’ub ‘feel’, do not mark for aspect.
34
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
2.4.1
Aspect
Perhaps the clearest difference between verb and noun stems in Chol is that noun
predicates cannot be marked for aspect. To express temporal notions, an adverb
must be employed. This is shown in examples (2.27) and (2.28).
(2.27) wajali wiñik-oñ
before man-1A
‘I was a man.’
(2.28) *tyi
wiñik-oñ
PERF man-1A
‘I was a man.’
Verb stems, on the other hand, obligatorily mark for one of three aspects: perfective, imperfective or progressive. Like many other members of the Mayan family,
such as Jacaltec (Craig 1979) and Mam (England 1983), Chol has no morphological
means to mark tense, which Comrie (1985, 1) defines as the “grammaticalization
of location in time.” Tense is a deictic category, a category whose reference is determined with respect to some specific context or situation, or a specific point in
time. Aspect, on the other hand, focuses on the temporal nature of the event itself
without tying it to any deictic center. It is the grammaticalization of “the internal
temporal constituency of a situation” (Comrie 1976, 3). In English, for example, a
language with both tense and aspect, the progressive aspect may appear in either
the past tense (It was snowing) or the future tense (It will be snowing).
In Chol, tense notions like past and future are marked with temporal adverbs
like wajali ‘before’, ’abi ‘yesterday’ and ’ik’ä ‘tomorrow’. In (2.29), for example, the
imperfective aspectual clitic mi occurs with the temporal adverb wajali, indicating
that the event took place in the past, but lasted over an extended period of time.
Contrast this with the perfective example in (2.30). The fact that mi may be used
to describe the nature of a past event indicates that we are indeed dealing with
aspect, not tense, as claimed by some previous authors (cf. Warkentin and Scott,
1980).
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
35
(2.29) wajali mi’
bä’ñañ-Ø ja’lel
before IMPF.3E fear-3A
rain
‘He used to be afraid of the rain.’
(2.30) tyi’
bä’ñ-ä-Ø
ja’lel
PERF.3E fear-VT-3A rain
‘The rain scared him (just now).’
In Tila Chol, perfective aspect is marked with tyi or ta’ ;18 imperfective is marked
with mi or muk’ ;19 and progressive with choñkol.20 The perfective aspect is used
to indicate that the action is completed and should be viewed “in its entirety”; the
imperfective aspect marks an action as incomplete, or as an “ongoing process”; and
the progressive aspect indicates that an action takes place over a period of time, and
implies an “ongoing, dynamic process” (Payne 1997, 239-40). Chol aspect markers
are summarized in Table 2.9 below.
Perfective
tyi
ta’
Imperfective
mi
muk’
Progressive
choñkol
Table 2.9: Chol aspect
Vásquez Alvarez (2002, 92) claims that the different perfective and imperfective
markers are allomorphs of the same morphemes: “the perfective tyi and the imperfective mi have different allomorphs for pronominal and modal suffixation (tsa’ or
ta’ and muk’ of mu’ respectively)” (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 92).21 The allomorph
forms, he claims, may take inflection, whereas tyi and mi may not.
Based on the different structural features of the aspect auxiliaries, I depart from
Vásquez Alvarez (2002) in his claim that the muk’ and ta’ forms are simply allomorphs of mi and tyi respectively. Instead, I argue that mi and tyi are clitics22
18
Other dialects use tsa’.
mu’ frequently appears as an alternate of muk’
20
woli and yakal mark progressive in other Chol dialects.
21
My translation from: “el perfectivo tyi y el imperfectivo mi tienen un alomorfo diferente para
19
la sufijación pronominal y modal (tsa’ o ta’ y muk’ o mu’ respectivamente). . . ” (Vásquez Alvarez
2002, 92).
22
I am grateful to Matt Pearson for this suggestion.
36
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
while muk’, like the progressive choñkol, behaves more like a verb. The claim that
mi and tyi are clitics is supported first by the fact that they themselves may not
take any of the second position clitics discussed in §2.4.3 below. Second, they are of
the form CV rather than the CVC shape associated with full root forms (see Chapter 3), and finally it is often unclear where to draw the orthographic word boundary
between these aspect markers and the verb, both to me and to native Chol speakers.
In a sentence like the one given in (2.31), for example, native speakers are unsure
of whether the ergative affix forms a word with the aspect marker or with the verb
stem.
(2.31)
a. mi
k-mulañ-Ø tyumuty
IMPF 1E-like-3A egg
‘I like eggs.’
b. mi-k
mulañ-Ø tyumuty
IMPF-1E like-3A egg
‘I like eggs.’
The properties of the imperfective, progressive, and perfective aspects will be
discussed in turn below.
Imperfective
As discussed in §2.3.3 above, clauses in the non-perfective aspects exhibit a nominativeaccusative pattern. Compare the transitive clause in example (2.32) with the intransitive shown in example (2.33), both marked with the imperfective clitic mi.
(2.32) mi
k-mäñ-Ø tyumuty
IMPF 1E-buy-3A egg
‘I buy eggs.’
(2.33) mi
k-wäy-el
tyi
’ab
IMPF 1E-sleep-NOM PREP hammock
‘I sleep in a hammock.’
In contrast, the auxiliary form muk’ (previously considered an allormorph of mi )
may not co-occur with nominative-accusative marking on the verb, as shown by the
ungrammaticality of (2.34).
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
37
(2.34) *muk’ k-wäy-el
tyi
’ab
IMPF 1E-sleep-NOM PREP hammock
‘I sleep in a hammock.’
Instead, when the imperfective auxiliary form muk’ is used, person is marked on
the aspectual marker and the main verb appears in its nominal form,23 subordinated
by the preposition tyi, as shown in example (2.35a). The clitic mi is unable to appear
in such a construction, as shown by the ungrammaticality of example (2.35b).
(2.35)
a. muk’-oñ tyi
wäy-el
tyi
’ab
IMPF-1A PREP sleep-NOM PREP hammock
‘I sleep in a hammock.’
b. *mi-oñ
tyi
wäy-el
tyi
’ab
IMPF-1A PERF sleep-NOM PREP hammock
‘I sleep in a hammock.’
Muk’ may also select a complement containing a “verbal noun”, one of a set of
nouns in Chol which are used to express “verbal” information (see §3.2.1), as shown
in example (2.36). The ungrammaticality of (2.36a) demonstrates the structural
differences between the mi and muk’ forms: mi may not host any morphology and
is thus unable to serve as an auxiliary verb.
(2.36)
a. *mi-Ø
tyi
woj tyi
’abälel jiñi ts’i’
IMPF-3A PREP bark PREP night DET dog
‘The dog barks at night.’
b. muk’-Ø
tyi
woj tyi
’abälel jiñi ts’i’
IMPF-3A PREP bark PREP night DET dog
‘The dog barks at night.’
Additionally, the auxiliary muk’ is used in conjunction with Chol’s second position enclitics. For example, in (2.38a) the auxiliary muk’ along with the affirmative
modal enclitic -äch serve as a pro-verb response to the question in (2.37). Mi,
however, may not appear in this construction (2.38b).
23
The nominality of these forms will be argued for in §4.1
38
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
question:
(2.37) mi
a-mulañ-Ø muty?
IMPF 2E-like-3A chicken
‘Do you like chicken?’
answer:
(2.38)
a. muk’-äch
IMPF-AFF
‘Yes.’
b. *mi-äch
IMPF-AFF
‘Yes.’
Progressive
The Tila Chol progressive aspect marker, choñkol, has the distributional properties
of both mi and muk’ combined. As shown in example (2.39), person may be marked
either on the aspect marker in a subordinated verb construction, or on the main
verb. These two forms have no apparent difference in meaning.
(2.39)
a. choñkol aw-uch’-el
PROG 2E-eat-NOM
‘You are eating.’
b. choñkol-ety tyi
’uch’-el
PROG-2A PREP eat-NOM
‘You are eating.’
Additionally, choñkol may appear with a “verbal noun” like k’ay, as in example
(2.40).
(2.40) choñkol tyi
k’ay tyaty-muty
PROG PREP song father-chicken
‘The rooster is crowing.’ (lit.: ‘The rooster is doing song.’)
Also like muk’, the progressive aspect marker may serve as a pro-verb answer to a
question, as in example (2.42).
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
39
question:
(2.41) choñkol-Ø tyi
’uk’-el
i-ñeñe’?
PROG-3A PREP cry-NOM 3E-baby
‘Is her baby crying?’
answer:
(2.42) choñkol-äch
PROG-AFF
‘Yes.’
The fact that choñkol exhibits properties of both mi and muk’ (i.e. may appear
in a nominative-accusative or ergative-absolutive pattern) suggests perhaps that it
is a recently grammaticalized form, also supported by its longer CVCCVC shape
(though it is sometimes heard shortened to choñ). The origins of choñkol deserve
further exploration.
Perfective
Tila Chol has two perfective aspect markers: tyi and ta’. Constructions in the perfective aspect differ markedly from the two non-perfective aspects discussed above.
All intransitive perfective constructions mark for person with absolutive suffixes,
following the ergative-absolutive agreement pattern. Compare, for example, the
transitive sentence in (2.43) with the intransitive (2.44).
(2.43) tyi
k-pok’-o-Ø
ch’ejew
PERF 1E-wash-VT-3A dishes
‘I washed dishes.’
(2.44) tyi
chäm-i-Ø jiñi chityam
PERF die-VI-3A DET pig
‘The pig died.’
In the perfective neither of the aspect markers tyi or ta’ may be marked for
person and no subordinated verb constructions are possible, as shown by the ungrammaticality of (2.45b).
40
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.45)
a. tyi
’uch’-i-Ø aj-Nena
PERF eat-VI-3A CL-Nena
‘Nena ate.’
b. *tyi/ta’ tyi
’uch’-el
aj-Nena
PERF PREP eat-NOM CL-Nena
‘Nena ate.’
Like muk’ and choñkol, however, the perfective ta’ (but not tyi ) may take clitics,
and may serve as a pro-verb response to (2.46), as shown in example (2.47).
question:
(2.46) tyi
a-ch’äm-ä-Ø
tya’k’iñ?
PERF 2A-receive-VT-3A money
‘Did you receive the money?’
answer:
(2.47)
a. ta’-äch
PERF-AFF
‘Yes.’
b. *tyi-äch
PERF-AFF
‘Yes.’
In the texts told by Virginia’s father Abram and her husband Irineo (transcribed
in Appendices B–E), the perfective ta’ frequently appears with no enclitics. Viriginia
claims that this is not good Tila Chol, and that she doesn’t know “where they picked
that up,” since it sounds to her like Tumbalá Chol. Abram also frequently uses
the perfective marker laj, found in Petalcingo Tzeltal (Shklovsky, p.c.). Because
I spend most of my time around women, and have never heard ta’ used without
an enclitic, this discrepancy is perhaps due to the greater mobility of men in rural
Chol country. Chol-speaking men are more likely to have had contact with speakers
of other dialects, and perhaps for this reason have picked up some of their verbal
habits. In Tila Chol at least, it seems safe to conclude that tyi is a clitic and ta’ is
generally an auxiliary, analogous to the imperfective mi and muk’ respectively.
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
41
“Periphrastic aspects”: prospective, inceptive, and terminative
Vásquez Alvarez (2002, 112) identifies three additional aspects which he labels periphrastic: “prospective, inceptive, and terminative, which are derived from verbs
though they function as simple verbs” (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 112).24 The prospective “marks pre-state reference,” where “[e]vent realization is not entailed” (Bohnemeyer 1998, 707; cited in Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 112), inceptive “expresses the
starting point of an event” (Payne 1997, 240), and terminative “serves to assert the
post-state of an event” (Bohnemeyer 1998, 350; cited in Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 119).
These aspects, I claim, are not periphrastic but instead are grammaticalized versions of verb stems derived from the roots kej ‘begin’, tyech ‘begin’, and ’ujty ‘finish’.
Though Vásquez Alvarez (2002, 115) cites examples of these particles appearing as
the sole aspectual marker in a verb phrase, analogous constructions proved ungrammatical for speakers in Campanario. There, these periphrastic aspects must
occur following one of the three main aspect markers discussed above, as shown in
examples (2.48) and (2.49).
(2.48) mi
ke
la-k-tyaj-Ø
wokol
IMPF PROSP PL.INC-1E-find-3A problem
‘We begin to find problems.’
(2.49) *ke
la-k-tyaj-Ø
wokol
PROSP PL.INC-1E-find-3A problem
‘We begin to find problems.’
Summary of aspect
As the summary in Table 2.10 shows, three basic types of aspect markers may be
identified: non-perfective auxiliary markers which may mark for person and appear
with a subordinated main verb (muk’ and choñkol ); the perfective marker which
may serve as a pro-verb but may not appear with a subordinated main verb (ta’ );
and finally, the clitics mi and tyi which may not take any additional morphology.
24
My translation from: “. . . el prospectivo, el inceptivo y el terminativo, que se derivan de verbos
que aún funcionan como verbos simples” (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 112).
42
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
take clitics
serve as pro-verbs
take abs. suffixes
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
mi
muk’
choñkol
pattern nom.-acc.
√
√
tyi
ta’
Table 2.10: Distributional properties of aspect markers
In Chapter 4 I will further discuss aspect marking in Chol, focusing particularly
on the two different structural options available for forming intransitive constructions in the non-perfective aspects.
2.4.2
“Voice” morphology
In this section I discuss various valence and relation “adjusting” operations found
in Chol.25 Valence and relation adjusting operations, often called “voices”, are
the means a language has to “adjust the relationship between semantic roles and
grammatical relations in clauses” (Payne 1997, 169). The term “valence” refers to
the number of arguments obligatorily present in a verbal construction. In English,
for example, the verb sleep has a valence of one, as in The cat slept all day (but
not two, *The cat slept you). The verb read, on the other hand, may have either a
valence of one, as in Yesterday I read, or of two in I read the book.
The English passive is an example of voice morphology. According to traditional
transformational grammar, English passive constructions are thought to be derived
from active constructions:26 the object becomes the subject and the former subject
is moved to an oblique (non-obligatory) position. For example, the verb hug, with
a valence of two (Laurel hugged the cat) takes only one argument in its passive
form The cat was hugged (by Laurel). The passive not only decreases the valence,
25
26
But see §4.2.1 for why this might be an inappropriate label.
Though this has been rejected in more recent versions of the framework, e.g. Minimalism.
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
43
but also adjusts the relationship between the arguments and the verb: the cat,
the original object, moves into a subject relationship with the verb. This type of
transformational analysis is supported by the fact that English passive constructions
are more marked, or take more morphology, than their active counterparts.
In Chol, however, this is not obviously the case. Rather than being derived
from the active form, I argue in Chapter 4 that some of what have been considered
“voices” and other verbal forms (including active) are in many cases created directly
from the root. All verbal stems, including active, require a suffix before they are able
to inflect for person and number. Because I claim that a distinction between nouns
and verbs is not relevant at the root level, it does not make sense to discuss whether
valence morphology attaches to nominal or verbal stems; rather, valence morphology
creates verbal stems. In this section we will briefly examine morphological active,
passive, antipassive, applicative, and causative operations. Because most of the
non-perfective suffixes may be analyzed as nominalizations of the perfective forms
(see §4.2.1), only perfectives will be discussed here.
Figure 2.5: Morelia with her cousin Daisy
44
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
Active
Active verbs in the perfective aspect are formed with a -V suffix: transitive verbs,
such as the one shown in example (2.50) below, take a harmonic vowel, -v, while
intransitives like the one in (2.51) are formed with the suffix -i.
(2.50) tyi
k-mek’-e-y-ety
PERF 1E-hug-VT-EPN-2A
‘I hugged you.’
(2.51) tyi
yajl-i-y-oñ
PERF fall-VI-EPN-1A
‘I fell.’
As discussed above in §2.2.5, roots of the form CaC take the harmonic suffix -a
unless the final consonant is a fricative, in which case they take the suffix ä-, as
shown in example (2.52).
(2.52) tyi’
jats’-ä-y-oñ
PERF.3E hit-VT-EPN-1A
‘She hit me.’
Passive
In Chol “passive” constructions, the patient or undergoer of the action is the only
argument of the verb. An agent may be overtly realized as an oblique phrase using
the preposition tyi. In CVC roots where the final consonant is a non-fricative, the
root vowel is lengthened to form an intransitive stem (see §2.2.4 above). This stem
now inflects like a regular perfective intransitive with the suffix -i, as illustrated in
example (2.53).
(2.53) tyi
mejk’-i-y-oñ
(tyi
k-mama)
PERF hug.PASS-VI-EPN-1A (PREP 1E-mother)
‘I was hugged (by my mother).’
CVC roots with a fricative final consonant, on the other hand, take the suffix -le
to form the passive.
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
45
(2.54) tyi
k’ux-le-y-oñ
(tyi
jiñi ts’i’)
PERF bite-PASS-EPN-1A (PREP DET dog)
‘I was bitten (by that dog).’
These constructions will be discussed in greater detail in §3.2.1.
Antipassive
Whereas a passive construction demotes the subject of a clause, antipassive constructions omit the object from the argument structure. In Chol the resulting form
of what has been called the antipassive is nominal in nature and analogous to English gerund constructions (‘I did some shopping’).27 This construction in Chol is
marked with the suffix -oñ, which then takes the nominal suffix -el. The resulting
nominal form requires the assistance of a light (semantically empty) verb, as shown
in example (2.55), or one of the aspectual auxiliaries which may mark for person
(see §2.4.1), as shown in example (2.56).
(2.55) tyi
k-cha’l-e-Ø
mäñ-oñ-el
PERF 1E-do-VT-3A buy-AP-NOM
‘I did some shopping.’
(2.56) choñkol-Ø tyi
mäñ-oñ-el
PROG-3A PREP buy-AP-NOM
‘She’s (doing) shopping.’
Applicative
The applicative is a valence increasing operation which “brings a peripheral participant onto center stage by making it into a direct object” (Payne 1997, 186).
Applicative in Chol is marked by the suffix -be in the perfective aspect. In example (2.57a), joñoñ, the recipient/benefactee of the event, is expressed as an oblique
phrase using cha’añ. In (2.57b), the applicative is used and the recipient/benefactee
advances to an argument position and agrees with the absolutive suffix on the verb.
27
Because these forms are nominal, it is unclear whether “antipassive” (typically applied to verb
forms) is really the appropriate label.
46
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.57)
a. ili x-’ixik
tyi’
mäñ-ä-Ø
koya’
cha’añ joñoñ
this CL-woman PERF.3E buy-VT-3A tomato for
1PRON
‘That woman bought tomatoes for me.’
b. ili
x-’ixik
tyi’
mäñ-be-y-oñi
waj
joñoñi
DET CL-woman PERF.3E buy-APP-EPN-1A tortilla 1PRON
‘That woman bought me tortillas.’
Note here that the applicative suffix -be is mutually exclusive with the active
suffix -ä. This supports my claim that both forms are created from the root (rather
than the applicative being derived from the active).
Example (2.58) exhibits an applicative construction with what has been called
“possessor ascension” or “external possession” (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 289). Here,
the first person possessor of ’ok ‘leg’, marked with the ergative prefix k-, has been
raised to the direct object position and is thus cross-referenced with the first person
absolutive suffix on the verb stem.
(2.58) tyi’
k’ux-be-y-oñi
ki -ok
ts’i’
PERF.3E bite-APP-EPN-1A 1E-EPN-leg dog
‘The dog bit my leg.’
Applicative constructions are frequent in Chol, which has only one inherently
ditransitive verb: ’ak’ ‘give’ (Vásquez Alvarez 2002, 278).
Causative
Causative is another valence-increasing operation which adds an argument by introducing a “causer” of the event. Chol has both lexical and morphological means
to express causativization. The latter strategy operates on intransitive verbs and
employs the suffix -sä in the perfective, as shown in example (2.59). Transitive verbs
have recourse to lexical causativization, which will not be discussed here.
(2.59) jiñi x-’ixik
tyi’
’uch’-sä-Ø
y-alobil
DET CL-woman PERF.3E eat-CAUS-3A 3E-child
‘The woman fed her children.’ (lit.: ‘The woman caused her children to eat.’)
These constructions will be further examined in Chapter 4.
2.4. THE STRUCTURE OF NOUNS AND VERBS
2.4.3
47
Second position clitics
Chol possesses a variety of “second position” enclitics, listed with their abbreviations
in Table 2.11. These clitics generally express modal information, described below.
-ix
‘already’
ALR
-tyo
‘still’
STILL
-ba
interrogative
INT
-ik
subjunctive
SUBJ
-ku
assertive
ASV
-äch
affirmative
AFF
-ka
dubitative
DUB
-bi
reportative
REP
Table 2.11: Second position clitics
-ix can be roughly translated as ‘already’ or ‘sooner than expected’, while -tyo
means ‘still’ or ‘later/longer than expected’. Vásquez Alvarez (2002, 126, 129) analyzes these two clitics as markers of completive and incompletive aspect respectively.
However, the fact that each may appear in both perfective and non-perfective constructions, shown in examples (2.60) and (2.61), supports my claim that they are
in fact modal: they describe the speaker’s attitude toward the event, e.g., whether
it occurred sooner or later than expected. John Haviland (p.c.) also rejects the
classification of these enclitics as aspectual, labeling them instead as “perspectival”
(having to do with the speaker’s perspective of the event).
(2.60) ta’-ix
jul-i-y-ety
PERF-ALR arrive-VI-EPN-2A
‘You arrived already.’
(2.61) muk’-ix
a-majl-el
IMPF-ALR 2E-go-NOM
‘You’re going already.’
48
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
-ik is used to mark subjunctive, while the interrogative -ba is rarely heard in
this dialect.28 The differences between the affirmative or assertive -ku and -äch are
unclear at this point, though both are used to affirm or emphasize a statement. -ka
and -bi carry epistemic information: -ka is used to express doubt while -bi is used
to report hearsay or events to which the speaker was not a witness. This latter clitic
is found with great frequency in traditional narratives.
Second position clitics in Chol are found in both verbal and nominal constructions, generally attached to the first word in the clause (negative and existential
particles, auxiliary, or nominal), as shown in the following examples. Halpern (2001)
notes, however, that:
[I]n perhaps all languages with [second position] clitics, certain sentenceinitial constituents have to be ignored for the purpose of determining the
second position. . . Such skipping is generally assumed to indicate that the
skipped constituents are in some sense invisible to the clitic, or outside
the domain relevant for the calculation of second position (Halpern 2001,
113).
This appears to be the case in example (2.65) where the clitic “skips” over the
adverb wajali. Exactly what the “relevant domain” is here remains to be determined
for Chol.
(2.62) maystraj-ety-ix
SP.teacher-2A-ALR
‘You’re already a teacher.’
(2.63) muk’-oñ-äch
tyi
’e’tyel
IMPF-1A-AFF PREP work
‘Yes I did work.’
(2.64) ma’añ-ik
tsajñ-oñ
tyi
k-otyoty. . .
NEG-SUBJ go.and.return-1A PREP 1E-house
‘If I hadn’t returned to my house. . . ’
28
Changes in tone and stress pattern, discussed in §2.2.6 are more frequently employed to form
yes/no questions
2.5. MODIFIERS
49
(2.65) wajali ’añ-bi
juñ-tyikil
x-ñek. . .
before EXT-REP one-NC.people CL-ñek
‘(They say) once there was a xñek . . . ’
More than one clitic may affix to the same word, as in example (2.66).
(2.66) muk’-ix-bi
ke
i-choñ-Ø y-otyoty
IMPF-AREADY-REP PROSP 3E-sell-3A 3E-house
‘They say she is already going to sell her house.’
2.5
Modifiers
In this section I will describe ways in which noun and verb stems in Chol may be
modified. For noun stems, determiners, numeral classifiers, and adjectives will be
discussed. For verbs, we will examine modification from adverbs, positionals, and
affectives.
2.5.1
Noun modification
Bare modifiers in Chol typically precede the nouns they modify. In a complex NP,
the order of modifiers is determiner - numeral classifier - adjective - noun, as shown
in example (2.67). Each will be examined below.
(2.67) ’ili cha’-kojty
’i’ik’ muty
k-cha’añ
this two-NC.animal black chicken 1E-NC.for
‘These two black chickens are mine.’
Determiners
The set of demonstrative pronouns in Chol includes ’ili ‘this’ and ’ixä ‘that’. Chol
does not have a definite determiner. Instead, the third person pronoun jiñ is frequently suffixed with the proximate -i (used to indicate greater salience or relevance)
to form jiñi. Jiñi is similar in distribution to the demonstrative pronouns, but has
more to do with salience than with spatial location. An analogous from English
might be the use of this in the colloquial I saw this guy yesterday. . .
50
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.68) ili baso
k’äñk’äñ, ixä baso
yäyäx
this SP.cup yellow
that SP.cup green
‘This cup is yellow, that cup is green.’
Numeral classifiers
The Mayan obsession with shape, form, and spatial orientation is examplified in
Chol’s elaborate system of numeral classifiers. Numeral classifiers appear obligatorily suffixed to numerical expressions quantifying nouns, as seen in example (2.69),
as well as to the question word jay ‘how many’, in example (2.70). The classifier
-tyikil in the first example is used for people and human-like creatures (e.g. the
xñek ; see Appendix D). -p’ej is used with spherical things, as shown in the second
example, but it is also found with nouns that denote more abstract concepts, such
as kilograms or hours.
(2.69) ta’
i-sub-oñ
juñ-tyikil
ñoj weñ-bä
i-pusik’al
PERF 3E-tell-1A one-NC.people very good-REL 3E-heart
‘A person with a good heart told me.’
(2.70) jay-p’ej
koko
aw-om
how.many-NC.round SP.coconut 2A-want
‘How many coconuts do you want?’
Other numeral classifiers include -kojty, for four-legged animals and, more recently, cars, airplanes and bicycles; -k’ejl is for flat things such as tortillas, leaves,
pages and compact discs; and -ts’ijty is used to count long skinny things such as
ears of corn, bananas, fingers, and pencils.
Numeral classifiers are generally of the form CVjC (a root with a lengthened
vowel), indicating that an intransitivization process has taken place (see §2.2.4).
This is confirmed by the fact that many of the CVjC classifiers have semantically
related CVC counterparts, as shown in the examples below.29
29
The latter two examples are from the Aulie and Aulie (1978) dictionary, my translation.
2.5. MODIFIERS
51
-kojty
NC for animals
koty
‘standing on four legs’
-chäjk’
NC for drops
chäk’
‘dripping’
-jojp
NC for corn, beans
jop
‘bring together dry things’
Although Chol, like other Mayan languages, once had a fully functional twentybased numerical system, the need to interact with Spanish speakers and Mexican
money in stores and in the market has necessitated the adoption of Spanish numerals.
Even many mostly-monolingual Chol speakers use Spanish numbers to count above
four or five. Classifiers do not occur with Spanish numerals and thus not surprisingly
seem to be falling out of use among younger speakers.
Adjectives
Bare adjectives in Chol precede the noun they modify, as shown in example (2.71).
(2.71) Kiril tyi’
käy-ä-Ø
chächäk libro
Kirill PERF.3E leave-VT-3A red
SP.book
‘Kirill left the red book.’
The suffix -eñ is used to create adjectives from roots which usually form intransitive stems, as for example koleñ ‘big’ from kol ‘grow’ and tyikiñ ‘dry’ from tyik
‘dry’ (where harmony has affected the suffix vowel).
Complex NPs
Complex NPs may not be possessed in Chol, as shown by the ungrammaticality
of (2.72a). Instead, the sustantivizing suffix -bä (also used in relative clauses, see
§2.6.3) is affixed to the modifier which may then be positioned freely with respect
to the noun, as in (2.72b and c).
(2.72)
a. *Kiril tyi’
käy-ä-Ø
k-chächäk libro
Kirill PERF.3E leave-VT-3A 1E-red
SP.book
‘Kirill left my red book.’
b. Kiril tyi’
käy-ä-Ø
chächäk-bä k-libro
Kirill PERF.3E leave-VT-3A red-REL
1E-SP.book
‘Kirill left my red book.’
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CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
c. Kiril tyi’
käy-ä-Ø
k-libro
chächäk-bä
Kirill PERF.3E leave-VT-3A 1E-SP.book red-REL
‘Kirill left my red book.’
2.5.2
Verb modification
Verbs are modified in one of two ways: the verb root may form a compound with another root, which expresses adverbial information; or a free form such as a positional
or affective stem may appear preceding the aspectual auxiliary. These methods will
be discussed in turn below.
Compounding
In Chol, a root expressing adverbial information may form a compound with a verbstem forming root. The features of the head (rightmost element) determine the
features of the entire compound, as shown in transitive and intransitive examples
below. Note in example (2.73) that the entire compound is preceded by the ergative
prefix k-.
(2.73) ta’
k-[wiñ koty]-ä-Ø
tyi
’e’tyel
PERF 1E-lot help-VT-3A PREP work
‘I helped him work a lot.’
(2.74) tyi
[cha’ majl ]-i-Ø
PERF again go-VI-3A
‘He went again.’
The adverbial member of the compound may come either from the class of roots
used to form positional stems, as for example buch ‘seated’, wa’ ‘standing’, or päk
‘face-down’; or another root expressing adverbial information, for example a temporal or manner adverb. The roots shown below are frequently found in verbal
compounds.
2.5. MODIFIERS
cha’
‘again’ (also ‘two’)
lu’
‘all’
weñ / wiñ
‘well’ or ‘a lot’ (also ‘good’)
mal
‘badly’ (from Spanish)
53
Further evidence that these are compound constructions (and not examples of
incorporation, as claimed by Vásquez Alvarez (2002)), are found in examples (2.75)
and (2.76), where the compound forms have taken on non-compositional meanings;
the meaning of the whole is not deducible from the meaning of the parts. Since
syntactic processes like incorporation should (under traditional analyses) be entirely
regular, these idiosyncratic meanings must come from compounding in the lexicon.
Alternatively, as I will argue in Chapter 4, compounds may be formed through
merge under a locality domain.
(2.75) tyi
[buch wäy]-i-y-oñ
PERF sit
sleep-VI-EPN-1A
‘I nodded off (without meaning to).’
(2.76) tyi
[wa’
majl ]-i-Ø tyi
karo
PERF standing go-VI-3A PREP SP.car
‘She went quickly in the car.’
Free adverbs
Free modifiers immediately precede the aspect marker. These may include positional
stems (see §3.2.1), affective stems (see §3.2.1), as well as adverbs which express
temporal information. Examples of each are given in order below.
(2.77) päk-äl
tyi
käy-le
tyi
ja’
face.down-POS PERF stay.VPOS PREP water
‘She stayed face-down in the water.’
(2.78) tyip’-tyip’-ña tyi
majl-i-Ø
jump-jump-AFT PERF go-VI-3A
‘It went jumping.’
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CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.79) wajali tyi
k-cha’l-e-Ø
toñel
before PERF 1E-do-VT-3A SP.work
‘I used to work.’
However, perhaps “adverb” is not the best label for these forms, as adjectives like
p’ump’um may also appear here, as shown in example (2.80). “Modifiers” might be
a better catch-all label for these items.
(2.80) p’ump’um ta’
kol-i-y-oñ
poor
PERF grow-VI-EPN-1A
‘I grew up poor.’
2.5.3
Negation
Chol’s negative particle is mach. It is frequently found coupled with the existential
’añ to produce the abbreviated form ma’añ. Each of these is used to negate both
noun and verb stems in Chol, where the marker of negation always precedes the
stem it negates.
In general, mach is used to negate imperatives (2.81), qualities of nouns and
verbs, and non-perfective (nominal) constructions (2.82). Ma’añ negates existentials
(2.83) and perfective verbal constructions (2.84).
(2.81) mach a-k’ux jiñi
NEG 2E-eat DET
‘Don’t eat that!’
(2.82) mach muty
NEG chicken
‘It’s not a chicken.’
(2.83) ma’añ
muty
NEG.EXT chicken
‘There’s no chicken.’
(2.84) ma’añ
tyi
i-tyaj-a-Ø
i-papa
NEG.EXT PERF 3E-find-VT-3A 3E-father
‘He didn’t find his father.’
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
55
However, mach may not co-occur with Chol’s imperfective marker mi, as shown
by the ungrammaticality of (2.85a). To negate an imperfective construction, either
mach is used with no aspect marker, as shown in (2.85b), or ma’añ appears together
with mi, as in example (2.85c). That mach and mi may not appear together, and
that mach appears to carry imperfective aspect (confirmed by the fact that it may
not appear in a perfective construction), suggest that Chol’s imperfective form is
historically related to negation.30 Compare also Chol’s imperfective aspect markers
mi, mu’ (in some dialects), and muk’ with nearby Tzotzil’s negation marker mu.
These forms are also likely related to Chol’s conditional mi ‘if’.
(2.85)
a. *mach mi
k-ña’tyañ-Ø
NEG IMPF 1E-know-3A
‘I don’t know.’
b. mach k-ña’tyañ-Ø
NEG 1E-know-3A
‘I don’t know.’
c. ma’añ
mi
k-ña’tyañ-Ø
NEG.EXT IMPF 1E-know-3A
‘I don’t know.’
2.6
Clause structure and constituent order
Because languages of the Mayan family do not mark morphological case on overt
nominal arguments, constituent order plays a significant role in distinguishing grammatical relations. In §2.6.1 and §2.6.2 I will discuss basic as well as marked constituent orders in the Mayan family generally and problems encountered determining alternative orders in Chol specifically. Next, in §2.6.3 I will examine constituent
order typology and proposed constituent order correlations in relation to Chol. Finally, in §2.6.4 I will review previous syntactic structures proposed for Chol’s close
relative, Tzotzil, and evaluate their usefulness to Chol.
30
I am grateful to Gülşat Aygen for this suggestion.
56
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
2.6.1
Constituent order in Mayan
Almost all of the languages in the Mayan family exhibit a basic VOS (verb-objectsubject) order (Aissen 1992, 43). VOS order is typologically rare: only about ten
percent of the world’s languages are verb-initial, and less than half of those order
the object before the subject (Whaley 1997, 83). Proto-Mayan is claimed to have
been VOS, but a few of the Mayan languages spoken today exhibit a basic VSO
order (Aissen 1992, 47). Word order, however, is flexible within many of the Mayan
languages, and each of the six possible combinations of V, S, and O have been attested as possible (at least in pragmatically marked constructions) in some language
in the family (Aissen 1992, 43).
In a Chol construction with two overt nominal arguments,31 a prototypical volitional agent and a patient which undergoes a change of state, the most pragmatically
neutral (and thus basic) construction is VOS, as shown in example (2.86). In a pragmatically neutral intransitive construction, an overt nominal argument follows the
verb, resulting in basic VS order, illustrated in example (2.87).
(2.86) tyi
i-k’ux-u-Ø
waj
wiñik
PERF 3E-eat-VT-3A tortilla man
‘The man ate tortilla.’
(2.87) tyi
kol-i-Ø
tye’
PERF grow-VI-3A tree
‘The tree grew.’
Most Mayan languages allow the subject and the object to appear in pre-verbal
topic and focus positions, resulting in SVO and OVS orders.32 Chol is no exception,
as shown in examples (2.88) and (2.89).
(2.88) jiñi me’ ta’
y-il-ä-y-oñ-lojoñ
DET deer PERF 3E-see-VT-EPN-1A-PL.EXC
‘The deer saw us (exclusive).’
31
32
These constructions are extremely rare, as we will see later in this section.
It is unclear to me whether both constituents may be fronted in Chol, though this has been
attested in other Mayan languages (cf. Aissen 1992).
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
57
(2.89) ’ixim y-om-Ø
ili
muty
corn 3E-want-3A DET chicken
‘It’s corn that these chickens want.’
The order of two post-verbal arguments may also vary in marked constructions,
though this generally depends on the nominal properties of animacy and definiteness
(England 1991, 454) rather than on pragmatic factors. In Proto-Mayan, VOS is
thought to have occurred when the subject was higher on the animacy hierarchy
(human >> nonhuman/animate >> inanimate) than the object. The subject
was ordered before the object when the object was of greater or equal animacy than
the subject (Campbell and Kaufman 1985, 191). VSO constructions are therefore
more marked than VOS because in a prototypical transitive sentence, the agent is
more animate than the patient. Many of the languages spoken today still exhibit
similar patterns (cf. England 1991, Quizar 1979). For reasons that will be discussed
in the following section, it remains to be demonstrated whether these same rules
govern post-verbal constituent order variation in Chol.
2.6.2
Problems with constituent order in Chol
Initial attempts in the summer of 2002 to describe post-verbal constituent order
variations in Chol proved inconclusive. A sentence deemed acceptable one day would
be completely ungrammatical the next. Different factors contribute to problems
in describing Chol’s subtle word order variations. First, in a language where all
arguments are cross-referenced obligatorily on the verb, and overt pronouns appear
only for emphasis there are simply not a lot of words in any given clause to order.
To discover the basic ordering of V, O, and S in a language where two overt
nominal arguments do not usually appear at the same time in natural text requires
the use of elicited data, which brings us to the second problem: when eliciting forms
sentence-by-sentence, it is extremely difficult to gain an understanding of the true
pragmatic subtleties expressed by word order variations. Third: the SVO order of
Spanish, from which elicited sentences were translated, affects the order of words in
an equivalent Chol construction. For example, when asked how to say the Spanish
58
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
pragmatically neutral SV El perro se murió ‘The dog died’, a typical response would
be the one given in (2.90). Like the Spanish version, this sentence is SV. Unlike the
Spanish, however, the Chol translation is pragmatically marked, as the NP jiñi ts’i’
occupies the pre-verbal focus position. Here, Chol speakers are maintaining the
Spanish word order at the cost of changing the focus.
(2.90) jiñi ts’i’ tyi
chäm-i-Ø
DET dog PERF die-VI-3A
‘The dog died.’
In spite of problems determining the order of post-verbal arguments in marked
transitive constructions, it is uncontroversial that VOS/VS order predominates in
basic, unmarked clauses. The transitive sentence in (2.91), for example, contains
two participants of equal salience and definiteness. In sentences such as this one,
VOS is indisputably the most basic order, inasmuch as a VSO reading was deemed
ungrammatical.
(2.91) tyi’
mek’-e-Ø
x-’ixik
wiñik
PERF.3E hug-VT-3A CL-woman man
‘The man hugged the woman.’
*‘The woman hugged the man.’
2.6.3
Typological correlations
Since Greenberg’s 1963 influential paper on constituent order universals, many linguists have sought to discover meaningful correlations between a language’s basic
ordering of verb, subject, and object and other morphosyntactic phenomena.
Two linguists, Winfred Lehmann and Theo Vennemann, are credited with generalizing many of the results from Greenberg’s work on word order typology. They
noted that Greenberg’s correlations could be made based on the relationship between verb and object alone, thus leaving only two categories: languages in which
the object precedes the verb (OV) and languages in which the object follows the
verb (VO). Some of these correlations are given in Table 2.12, adapted from Whaley
(1997, 86).
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
VO
OV
preposition - noun
noun - postposition
noun - adjective
adjective - noun
noun - relative clause
relative clause - noun
59
sentence-initial question word non-initial question word
prefixes
suffixes
auxiliary verb - main verb
main verb - auxiliary verb
negative - verb
verb - negative
Table 2.12: Constituent order correlations
As we will see in the sections below, Chol meets most of the expectations of a
canonical verb-initial language: prepositions must precede nouns, question words
are sentence-initial, auxiliaries, adjectives, and negation precede the verb. However,
though Chol does have some prefixes, it is (contrary to the above predictions) a
primarily suffixing language. Though the order of relative clauses with respect to
their head is variable, it appears that noun - relative clause is the preferred order.
A few of these characteristics will be described in detail below.
Figure 2.6: The ruins at Palenque
60
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
Prepositions and relational nouns
Prepositions are used to express the relationship, usually spatial, between two or
more objects. Chol has only one true preposition, tyi whose meaning ranges over
English ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘to’, ‘from’, ‘near’, etc.. Tyi obligatorily precedes its nominal
complement, as in example (2.92).
(2.92) mi
k-majl-el
tyi
saltu
IMPF 1E-go-NOM PREP Salto
‘I’m going to Salto.’
(2.93) *mi
k-majl-el
saltu tyi
IMPF 1E-go-NOM Salto PREP
‘I’m going to Salto.’
More specific prepositional notions may be conveyed using the preposition tyi
plus one of a number of nouns, often denoting parts of the body. The location noun
is “possessed” by the second noun using the third person ergative prefix:33 “the
house’s back” in example (2.94).
(2.94) jiñi siya
ya’-añ
tyi’
paty ’otyoty
DET SP.chair there-EXT PREP.3E back house
‘The chair is behind/outside of the house.’
Other “prepositional” relations are conveyed by one of a few “relational nouns”.
Relational nouns are obligatorily possessed and may be thought of as a strategy to
“sneak” oblique arguments into the sentence via ergative and absolutive affixes on
the noun (Haviland, p.c.). Again similar to possessive constructions, the relational
noun precedes its complement, as shown in examples (2.95) and (2.96).
(2.95) jiñi jap
lembal mach i-cha’añ dyos
DET drink liquor NEG 3E-for
SP.God
‘Drinking is not for/of God.’
(2.96) aw-om-Ø
majl-el
aw-ik’oty-oñ
2E-want-3A go-NOM 2E-with-1A
‘Do you want to go with me?’
33
Recall from §2.2.5 that tyi’ paty is a contraction of tyi i-paty.
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
61
Relative clauses
In Chol, relative clauses are marked with the clitic -bä, which attaches to the phrase
initial particle (auxiliary or negative), as in examples (2.97) and (2.98).
(2.97) [[x-’ixik
[mu’-bä
tyi
ñoxejel ]] tyi
jul-i-Ø]
CL-woman IMPF-REL PREP swim
PERF arrive-VI-3A
‘The woman who swims arrived.’
(2.98) [[x-’ixik
[mach-bä muk’ tyi
ñoxejel ]] tyi
jul-i-Ø]
CL-woman NEG-REL IMPF PREP swim
PERF arrive-VI-3A
‘The woman who doesn’t swim arrived.’
Like the sustantivized adjectives (see §2.5.1), the order of the relative clause with
respect to the noun is variable. In example (2.99) the head noun x’ixik follows the
relative clause.
(2.99) [[[mu’-bä
tyi
ñoxejel ] x-’ixik ]
tyi
jul-i-Ø]
IMPF-REL PREP swim
CL-woman PERF arrive-VT-3A
‘The woman who swims arrived.’
Question words
Question words in Chol, listed in Table 2.13, appear obligatorily in clause-initial
position, as shown in the examples below.
jalaki
when
jay-NC
how many
bajche’
how
maxki
who
baki
where
chuki
what
chukoch
how
bakibä
which (lit.: where + REL)
Table 2.13: Question words
62
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
(2.100) bajche’ tyi
majl-i-y-ety
tyi
saltu
how
PERF go-VI-EPN-2A PREP Salto
‘How did you go to Salto?’
(2.101) baki ’añ
aw-otyoty
where EXT 2E-house
‘Where is your house?’
(2.102) jay-tyikil
aw-its’iñ
how.many-NC.people 2E-younger.sibling
‘How many younger siblings do you have?’
Figure 2.7: Hermelinda (holding Meyamatza), Fabiana, Linda del Rosario, and
Manuel
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
2.6.4
63
Syntactic representations
Due to the rarity of verb-initial languages, relatively few linguists have worked on the
syntax of languages with a basic VOS order. Judith Aissen is one notable exception.
In her 1992 “Topic and Focus in Mayan,” she proposes to parameterize the linear
order of specifiers with respect to their heads based on whether the specifier belongs
to a lexical or a functional category: the specifier of a functional category precedes its
head (specifier of CP and specifier of IP), whereas the specifier of a lexical category
follows its head (specifier of VP) (Aissen 1992, 46).34 She summarizes these claims
as “principles of Mayan word order”:
(2.103)
Aissen’s (1992) principles of Mayan word order
a. The head of a phrase precedes its complements.
b. The specifier of a functional category X’ precedes X’.
c. The specifier of a lexical category X’ follows X’.
These principles result in the structure shown in Figure 2.8.35 Within this structure,
Aissen (1992, 47) proposes that in pragmatically marked constructions internal topic
and focus constituents move from their original position to occupy either the specifier
of CP or IP respectively.
Using Aissen’s model, the Chol sentence in (2.104) would be represented as
shown in Figure 2.9.
(2.104) ma’añ tyi
i-wuts’-u-Ø
pisil
x-’ixik
NEG PERF 3E-wash-VT-3A clothes CL-woman
‘The woman didn’t wash clothes.’
34
In the same year, Guilfoyle et al. (1992) proposed to parameterize the linear order between
heads and their specifiers for Malagasy, another VOS language. Interestingly, however, they proposed exactly the opposite ordering: the specifier of a functional category follows the head, while
the specifier of a lexical category precedes its head.
35
Comp = Complementizer; Infl = Inflection; YP = Maximal projection of any type;
X’ → X YP; XP → X’ YP
64
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
CP
XX
XX
X
YP
C’
PP
Spec
TOPIC
PP
P
IP
XXX
Comp
X
X
Neg
IP
XXXX
X
YP
I’
XXX
XX
X
XP
XXX
Infl
Spec
XX
X’
FOCUS
YP
HH
H
X
YP
Spec
VERB
OBJECT
SUBJECT
Figure 2.8: Aissen’s tree
In Chol, since both topic and focus positions precede the negative particle, as
shown in example (2.105), Aissen’s tree must be modified. A tree for (2.105) is
shown in Figure 2.10, where the object moves from where it originates in the verb
phrase to the specifier of IP.
(2.105) ili
pisil
ma’añ tyi
i-wuts’-u-Ø
jiñi x-’ixik
DET clothes NEG PERF 3E-wash-VT-3A DET CL-woman
‘It was those clothes that the woman didn’t wash.’
IP
PPP
P
Neg
I’
XX
XX
X
ma’añ
Infl
VP
!aa
!!
a
tyi
V’
NP
"b
b
"
V
NP
iwuts’u
pisil
Figure 2.9: A Chol tree
x’ixik
2.6. CLAUSE STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENT ORDER
65
IP
XX
XX
X
Foc
IP
"b
"
b
ili pisili
PP
Neg
ma’añ
PP
P
I’
XXXX
X
Infl
VP
!aa
a
!!
a
!
tyi
NP
V’
"b
"
b
V
NP
H
H
H
jiñi x’ixik
B
iwuts’u
ti
Figure 2.10: A Chol tree with focus
This approach seems to account well for basic VOS clauses, topic and focus
constructions, question formation, and negation. As it currently stands, however,
it does not explain the variations in ordering of post-verbal elements between VOS
and VSO constructions described in other Mayan languages, to which Aissen readily
admits:
This account has nothing to say about the alternation between VOS
and VSO, which is probably a point in its favor, since the conditions
governing pre-and postverbal orders are different. Preverbal orders are
governed by logical and discourse-level relations like focus and topic,
while postverbal orders appear to be governed by properties of individual
NPs—definiteness, animacy, heaviness, and pronominal (Aissen 1992,
44).
A crucial issue for the syntax of Mayan languages will be to create representations
which are powerful enough to explain this variation.
66
CHAPTER 2. ALL ABOUT CHOL
2.7
Conclusions
In this chapter I have outlined the phonological and grammatical structure of Chol.
Though much still remains to be described, this sketch should provide a sufficient
basis for the claims I will make in the chapters to follow. Some important points to
take from this chapter include the following:
• The -j- that was previously called an infix in Chol should instead be considered
a process of vowel lengthening, analogous to other vowel operations which
create valence distinctions in languages of the Yucatan. Similarly, Chol’s sixth
vowel /ä/ appears to have originated in such transitivity operations.
• Chol uses the same two sets of affixes to head-mark relations between verbs,
nouns, and their respective dependents: ergative prefixes cross-reference a
transitive verb’s subject and a noun’s possessor/relator, while absolutive suffixes mark the object of a transitive verb and the theme of a predicate nominal.
• Chol has an aspect-based ergative split. Intransitives in the perfective aspect
use the ergative-absolutive pattern, while intransitives on the non-perfective
aspects (imperfective and progressive) employ the nominative-accusative pattern.
• There are two possibilities for forming intransitives in the non-perfective aspects. In one, person is marked on the main verb stem, while in the other the
main verb appears subordinated by the preposition tyi, and person is marked
on the aspectual auxiliary.
• The different aspect markers that were once treated as allomorphs of the same
morpheme should instead be considered structurally different creatures. Mi
and tyi are clitics, while muk’ and ta’ are closer to full lexical items.
• Voice morphology in Chol appears immediately following the root. Active
stems are just as marked as passive, causative, and applicative stems.
2.7. CONCLUSIONS
67
• Though basic constituent order in Chol is VOS/VS, subtle variations in order
have proven difficult to distinguish. Work remains to be done on the syntactic
representation of Mayan languages.